Modeling polarized solar radiation from the ocean–atmosphere system for CLARREO inter-calibration applications

Abstract. Reflected solar radiance from the Earth–atmosphere system is polarized. Radiance measurements can be affected by light's state of polarization if the radiometric sensor has polarization dependence. To enable the Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) mission for inter-calibration of the imagers with polarization dependence, such as the MODIS, the polarization state of the light must be known with sufficient accuracy. For this purpose, the polarized solar radiation from the ocean–atmosphere system is studied with an adding-doubling radiative transfer model (ADRTM). The Cox–Munk ocean wave slope distribution model is used in calculation of the reflection matrix of a wind-ruffled ocean surface. An empirical foam spectral reflectance model and an empirical spectral reflectance model for water volume below the surface are integrated in the ocean-surface model. Solar reflectance from the ADRTM is compared with that from the discrete-ordinate radiative transfer (DISORT) model. Sensitivity studies are conducted for various ocean-surface and atmospheric conditions for the stratification of polarization distribution models (PDMs), which are to be used in the inter-calibration of the polarization-sensitive imager measurements with the CLARREO data. This report presents the first accurate approach for making the spectral PDMs over broad solar spectra, which cannot be achieved by empirical PDMs based on the data from polarimetric sensors.